Roy Rogers

An hour from the heart of Hollywood in Thousand Oaks, Greenfield Ranch has drawn dozens of film, television and commercial productions over the years. Now the bucolic ranch is playing a starring role in the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie "We Bought a Zoo. " The 450-acre property, where Roy Rogers and Gary Cooper once shot westerns, was transformed over several months into a makeshift zoo that is the centerpiece of the Cameron Crowe-directed film opening Friday. The $50-million production, adapted from a memoir of the same name by former British journalist Benjamin Mee, stars Matt Damon as a widowed father who moves his family from Los Angeles to the countryside to renovate and reopen a dilapidated zoo. The book was set at Dartmoor Zoological Park in England, but the movie takes place in the fictional Rosemoor Wildlife Park, a run-down animal sanctuary in an unnamed rural Southern California town.

Singing cowboy Roy Rogers devoted his life to keeping the spirit of the American West alive. As a testament to his legacy, fans can join his Riders Club, which boasted nearly 2.5 million members in the U.S. and 90,000 in England during its heyday in the 1950s. "He stood for morals and ethics and was a real-life hero to many," said his son, Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr. Rogers starred in more than 80 films and "The Roy Rogers Show," which aired on NBC for six seasons and focused on family values and the cowboy lifestyle and had its own set of club rules such as "always obey your parents" and "be courteous and polite.

Up Interstate 15 just past the High Desert city of Victorville, Ernesto Enriquez found his dream. It's here, where old Route 66 takes visitors west, winding through yesteryear's dusty town centers, that you can see the cottonwoods lining the Roy Rogers Double R Bar Ranch.

An hour from the heart of Hollywood in Thousand Oaks, Greenfield Ranch has drawn dozens of film, television and commercial productions over the years. Now the bucolic ranch is playing a starring role in the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie "We Bought a Zoo. " The 450-acre property, where Roy Rogers and Gary Cooper once shot westerns, was transformed over several months into a makeshift zoo that is the centerpiece of the Cameron Crowe-directed film opening Friday. The $50-million production, adapted from a memoir of the same name by former British journalist Benjamin Mee, stars Matt Damon as a widowed father who moves his family from Los Angeles to the countryside to renovate and reopen a dilapidated zoo. The book was set at Dartmoor Zoological Park in England, but the movie takes place in the fictional Rosemoor Wildlife Park, a run-down animal sanctuary in an unnamed rural Southern California town.

Re "Roy Rogers, 'King of the Cowboys,' Dies," July 7: In my view, Roy Rogers' very best moment occurred in 1945 when he brought joy into the life of a small boy. Roy and Trigger appeared, I believe at a war bond drive, at Dakota Street School in East Los Angeles, where he met my brother Mike. Mike was a "blue baby" and as a result he was weak and undersized and most noticeably his skin was a bluish purple. Because Mike was different, I suppose, he was subject to some teasing from other kids.

The legend of the King of Cowboys lives on in the rocky crags of the hills here. Even though Roy Rogers moved from the San Fernando Valley more than three decades ago, his mark is still visible, particularly at the sprawling pink ranch house at the top of Trigger Street. Once a 300-acre ranch, most of the property is now developed with luxury custom homes, many with commanding views of the Valley below.

Roy Rogers, the "King of the Cowboys" who sang, smiled and occasionally shot his way into the hearts of multitudes of Little Buckaroos, died Monday. He was 86. Rogers died of congestive heart failure in his Apple Valley home near Victorville, with his wife and co-star Dale Evans and other family members at his side. He had undergone heart surgery in 1977 and 1990 and had been somewhat frail in recent years.

Cowboy star Roy Rogers was honored by fellow Western movie actors at the Golden Boot Award dinner in Woodland Hills Friday night, and wife Dale Evans took the opportunity to give a boot of her own to modern Westerns. In Roy and Dale's pictures, the good guys were clean, wore white hats and always won by playing fair. She doesn't care much for today's grittier Westerns, said Evans, who co-starred with Rogers in 35 films. "Possibly they are more realistic about people," she said.

The operator of 18 Roy Rogers restaurants in New York filed suit Wednesday seeking $10 million in damages against Hardee's Food Systems, its parent company and Anaheim-based CKE Restaurants Inc. The suit claims Hardee's--which CKE plans to acquire from Montreal-based Imasco Ltd. in July--destroyed the Roy Rogers chain through "a series of marketing errors of epic proportions."

The Hardee's restaurant chain will buy Marriott Corp.'s Roy Rogers restaurant business for $365 million, the companies announced today. William E. Prather Jr., president of Hardee's Food Systems Inc., said the acquisition will improve his company's presence in the Northeast. Marriott said last month that it would sell the Roy Rogers fast food chain consisting of more than 600 restaurants located primarily in the Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York areas as part of a restructuring.

Olivia de Havilland rode a horse that later became famous as Roy Rogers' faithful Trigger in what movie? "The Adventures of Robin Hood"

The Autry National Center announced Tuesday it has acquired the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, containing materials and memorabilia from the duo's more than 50-year entertainment career. The collection includes newspaper clippings, programs from the Rose Parade and "The Roy Rogers Show," sheet music, promotional materials, licensed objects such as puzzles and coloring books, photographs and business files. Center officials said that once they have categorized and organized the materials, key items will be exhibited in the museum's Imagination Gallery.

Antonio Aguilar, the veteran Mexican showman who shuffled on stage for a farewell concert Sunday at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena, threw kisses, touched his heart and did a jaunty, side-to-side polka step for a few seconds much to the crowd's delight. The move was modest but enough to prove that the old fun-loving flame still flickered in a man who had devoted his life to bring enjoyment on a grand scale to humble immigrant audiences.

I see that the liberals in Sacramento have now made it a crime for children to play with [realistic-looking] toy guns in public (Sept. 21). I grew up with Fanner 50s, Roy Rogers cap guns and BB guns. I taught my daughter how to shoot, first by using a BB gun in my backyard (which, I presume, would be a $100 fine under the new law). She is now the 2004 World Champion Cowgirl Mounted Shooter. How many more children will miss an opportunity to participate in shooting sports and perhaps become a world champion shooter because some liberal thinks that kids playing with toy guns in a park or his or her neighborhood is dangerous?

It might have been anything but happy trails for the 300 fans and collectors gathered Saturday in Victorville at the former site of the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum. After all, the museum itself had already decamped for Branson, Mo., where it will reopen later this month. Much of its famous memorabilia -- including Trigger, Rogers' famous horse, mounted and preserved -- would never again reside in California. But the people gathered Saturday were joyous.

It's happy trails for the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, which will leave Victorville next year and relocate to Branson, Mo., curator Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr. announced Monday. The move was prompted, Rogers said, by the drop in attendance since the deaths of his father and stepmother, legendary stars of movie and television westerns in the mid-20th century. Attendance at the museum on the edge of the Mojave Desert has fallen below 50,000 visitors a year, said Rogers.

Singing cowboy star Roy Rogers is in good condition after surgery to repair his aorta, his son said. Rogers, 79, underwent four hours of surgery Monday at St. Mary Desert Valley Hospital, said Roy (Dusty) Rogers Jr. "He came through it very well," the actor's son said. "He's off the respirator. The nurse kept telling him to open his eyes, and he kept saying no. He's getting his orneriness back, and that's a good sign."

Up Interstate 15 just past the High Desert city of Victorville, Ernesto Enriquez found his dream. It's here, where old Route 66 takes visitors west, winding through yesteryear's dusty town centers, that you can see the cottonwoods lining the Roy Rogers Double R Bar Ranch.

The sprawling building housing the financially troubled Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in the Mojave Desert town of Victorville is for sale. The 33,000-square-foot structure on 50 acres beside Interstate 15 displays a collection paying homage to the "King of the Cowboys" and the "Queen of the West," who starred together in more than 30 motion pictures and two television series. He died in 1998 and she died last year. The couple's son, Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr.